Every Last Child Country Spotlight: Laos

Save the Children is campaigning at an international and national level to achieve the greatest impact for children with the Every Last Child Campaign.

Laos, a landlocked country of 6.5 million people in Southeast Asia, has seen impressive economic growth in recent years. Laos reports an annual GDP growth rate of 7.5% – the highest in the region – and between 1992 and 2008 the population living on less than $1.25/day dropped from 46% to 34%. Nevertheless, economic growth, fuelled largely by natural resource extraction, far outpaces social development. Laos remains a least developed country, ranked 139 out of 187 countries in the 2014 Human Development Report. While the Government of Laos prioritizes human development as critical to their graduation to a more developed country (MDC) status, deep social inequities persist. Ethnicity, wealth quintile, geography and education levels emerge as key determinants of social exclusion. These determinants intersect in alarming ways for children, particularly girls, of the more than 49 ethnic minority groups whose languages, livelihood systems, religious beliefs and social organization differ from the majority Lao-Tai group.

Read the full Every Last Child campaign report here.